Group Seeks to Tie House Candidate to Obama

In a sign of things to come if Sen. Barack Obama winds up as his party's standard-bearer, Freedom's Watch is airing an ad in a Louisiana special election that seeks to tie the Democratic candidate to the Illinois senator.

The ad takes state Rep. Don Cazayoux (D) to task for backing the same health care plan that Obama supports. "Health care, it's a big issue," says the ad's narrator. "Where does Don Cazayoux stand? With Barack Obama for a big government scheme."

Watch the ad:

Freedom's Watch, a not-for-profit group founded last fall by a number of Republican strategists with ties to the Bush White House, already spent $126,000 on its first ad targeting this special election, which painted Cazayoux as supportive of a number of tax increases.

Cazayoux is considered the favorite in the May 3 special election to replace Rep. Richard Baker (R), who resigned from Congress to take a position as the head of the Managed Fund Association.

Cazayoux faces former state representative Woody Jenkins in the runoff, and polling seems to suggest that despite the Republican tilt of the Baton Rouge-area 6th District Jenkins is struggling to keep the seat in GOP hands.

Obama's positions on most issues are likely to the ideological left of candidates like Cazayoux, who are seeking to represent conservative districts in Congress. The goal of ads like these is to raise doubts in voters' minds about whether Cazayoux is a Louisiana Democrat or a Washington Democrat. In this particular district, the former can get elected to Congress, the latter can't.

By Chris Cillizza  |  April 22, 2008; 5:28 PM ET
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